This is baby goose Grape, who we rescued in May, and who inspired the duck in my story.

Hello, sweet readers!

As my Lil Dude often says, "Two things. First..."

First, just want to let you know that if you'd likeany personalized, autographed copies of any of my books for a holiday gift, you can order them at Old Firehouse Books. In the Notes section of your order (either online or by phone) you can tell them who you'd like me to sign the book for, and anything special I should know about the recipient. I'll come to the store (just a few blocks from my house) within a day (barring extreme sickness) and autograph the book and then Old Firehouse will mail it to you! Easy peasy. You can also email me directly and give me a heads up so I'll be sure to sign it asap. (Lauraresau at gmail.com, subject: Signing Books). I recommend ordering soon to make sure they arrive in time!

Okay, on two Thing #2! The Geese Story! As you may or may not know, I put out a call on Facebook for interesting real-life pet skunk or waterfowl stories. (This relates to my next novel, which I hope to tell you more about soon!) I got lots of fascinating responses, and I thought I'd feature a couple on this blog... they're too good not to share.

Today's story is from wonderful school librarian, Alexis Gerard, of Maryland. I'm calling it:

"Hungover Geese in Cute Sweaters"

When my grandmother was a little girl, she lived on a large chunk of
property out in the country. They had many yard geese. Before she was
born, her family had gathered on the estate for the holidays. They made
egg nog with lots of rum. To cool it, they left it outside for a while.

The geese found it and drank almost all of it. Some time later my
grandmother's family came outside to find the dead birds in the back
garden.

They felt bad about it, but what could they do? Not wanting the
birds' lives to be a total waste, they decided they would pluck the
feathers from the geese.

Some time later the geese came to. Then my
family felt really bad as it was winter time and now these poor geese
were naked.

They brought the geese inside for a few days. The women
knitted little sweaters for every goose. The geese wore those sweaters
all winter until their feathers grew back.

True story!

Don't you LOVE it?! I think it would make an adorable, funny picture book... but I'm not sure about how appropriate drunk, passed-out geese would be for the preschool crowd...

Thank you SO much to everyone who contributed stories... you have tripled the laughter in my life on these dark December days...

xo
Laura

*If you embiggen this photo, you can see some of the greenish-yellow poo that plays a minor role in my novel.*